The use of mobile data networks to access multimedia content, such as live video, is a service used only by a small number of users. However, the number of users is increasing, and even with the small number of users, the amount of data that they consume is disproportionately large. Live events such as royal weddings, tennis matches, and other such one-off events, often generate spikes in traffic that can overwhelm a network. The use of eMBMS can greatly reduce the overall traffic load. As a result, eMBMS has been designated as the multicast standard for multimedia distribution on Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.
However, challenges have arisen where the content delivered through eMBMS is to be managed in a manner that allows content distribution control through the use of MBMS Service Keys (MSK) and MBMS Traffic Keys (MTK). One question that has arisen is how to make use of a centralized MSK/MTK key management function in a split eMBMS architecture, where the same eMBMS service can be broadcast via multiple BMSCs. Without a centralized key management system, a user will experience mobility issues that will impair the viewing experience. With centralized MSK/MTK key management, all Broadcast Multicast Service Centers (BMSC) will have the ability to use the same MSK/MTK keys for an eMBMS service, obviating the above issue. The need for centralized MSK/MTK key management does not change even if the BMSCs would be under the same or different standalone servers. The use of the same MSK/MTK keys may be over a nationwide eMBMS service (e.g. one File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) channel).
Such a solution needs to work for initial registration to an eMBMS service, inter-MBSC mobility, inter-standalone server mobility, and will preferably avoid problems related to a user equipment (UE) bouncing back and forth between segments when the UE is at a segment boundary. At present, such a unified solution has not been presented. One skilled in the art will appreciate that a central key authority generating a single set of MSK/MTK keys and transmitting them to each BMSC results in an increased overhead and an degradation in the security of the system, as the transmission of each key individually results in a large quantity of overhead. The interception and decoding of the keys would compromise the system as well. Although sending a plurality of keys together can mitigate the overhead issues, the issues surrounding security become more imperative. Both of these issues also introduce new problems when scaling is taken into account, as sending keys to a large number of different BMSCs will result in a greater load on the centralized authority.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that obviate or mitigate the above described problems.